In modern motor vehicles, supercharged internal combustion engines are of ever-increasing importance because, by way of such supercharging, the power density of the internal combustion engine can be considerably increased. There is therefore also an increasing tendency for vehicles with relatively small engines to be equipped with suitable supercharging devices in order to thereby increase the power thereof and/or reduce the fuel consumption thereof. There is likewise an evident tendency for engines to be reduced in size while maintaining the same level of power, in the context of so-called “downsizing”.
Supercharged internal combustion engines are generally equipped with a charge-air cooler in order for the charge air, which is supercharged for example by way of an exhaust-gas turbocharger and which is consequently heated, to be cooled again. Such cooling of the charge air increases the power of the internal combustion engine, reduces the fuel consumption and pollutant emissions thereof, and altogether reduces the thermal loading of the internal combustion engine as a whole.
The cooling of the charge air is realized by heat transfer from the charge air to the surroundings. This may be realized, as air-air heat transfer, by way of a so-called direct charge-air cooler, or indirectly through the additional use of an intermediate medium. As an intermediate medium, use is commonly made of cooling water. In the case of indirect charge-air cooling, at least two heat exchangers are used, typically a coolant cooler which dissipates the heat from the coolant to the surroundings, and a charge-air cooler which transfers the heat from the charge air to the coolant. Here, the indirect charge-air cooler may for example be composed of flat pipes which conduct the coolant and which, on the gas side, in order to improve the heat transfer, are connected to a rib structure, which rib structure serves firstly for the support of the flat pipes but is secondly also, in the charge-air cooler, integrated into the fluid path of the charge air to be cooled, in such a way that said charge air flows through said rib structure. The entire rib-pipe structure may be arranged between two so-called cooler boxes which fluidically communicate with the individual flat pipes and which serve for the distribution of coolant to the individual flat pipes. Here, one of the two cooler boxes serves both for the distribution of the coolant to the flat pipes and for the collection and discharging of the coolant from the charge-air cooler after said coolant has absorbed heat from the charge air. The two cooler boxes may in this case be attached to a common flange plate, which permits easy insertion of the charge-air cooler as a whole into a housing of a fresh-air system through which charge air flows.
After such installation of the charge-air cooler in the fresh-air system, the cooler box which serves for the introduction and discharge of coolant may be connected, as mentioned above, to a coolant circuit. For this purpose, there is commonly provided, on the cooler box, a first pipe connector which fluidically communicates with a first fluid region of the cooler box by way of which the coolant is distributed to the flat pipes. A second pipe connector which is likewise provided on the cooler box may communicate with a second fluid region, by way of which the coolant, after the exchange of heat with the charge air to be cooled, can consequently emerge from the cooler box again.
The mounting of an indirect charge-air cooler in an intake pipe is known from DE102009055715A1.